Proponents of Minnesota's conceal and carry law would have us believe that only law-abiding citizens obtain permits and that not a single permit holder in the country has caused a problem. But we know that claim cannot be supported.
The accounts below are just a sampling of the problems that permit holders have caused. In most states, permit holders' identities are protected. Even when they commit crimes, information about whether they had permits cannot be released. Minnesota's new law will give aggregate information on permit holders annually, but no individuals will be identified, even when they commit crimes.
Thus, the accounts below are based on information from family, friends or news reports. In Texas and Florida, permit holders' identities are not concealed.
Just 2 weeks after obtaining his permit, Damian Petersen of Maple Grove recklessly discharged 10 rounds of ammunition from his semiautomatic pistol in an attempt to protect his yard and driveway. Petersen continued firing at his brother's car as it pulled down the residential street. Petersen told the Pioneer Press, "He was ruining my property and he wouldn't stop. The only thing I could do was get my gun and shut his car down."
Here is short list of other recorded incidents:
- February, 2004: A toddler who shot himself in the head with his father's gun is brain-dead, doctors at Jackson Memorial Hospital said. The child had found the gun in the center console of his father's rental car when the man made a quick visit to a family friend Monday. Investigators had not decided Tuesday whether the charge the father, 26-year-old Travis Jenkins Sr., who had a weapons permit.
- Tampa, FLA, February, 2004: A gunfight erupted between a firing range officer and another man who were pulled up alongside each other at a traffic light, police said. Thomas Larry Watson, 51, a Firearms Training Center & Shooting Sports employee, was being held without bail at Falkenburg Road Jail Monday on a charge of felony aggravated battery with a firearm. In a dispute over driving habits Saturday, Watson got out of his vehicle and fired his .40-caliber Beretta handgun at Derek Porter, 24, who pulled his own handgun and fired back, Tampa police said. Porter was wounded in the hand and forearm.
- Alan Storry and his family, of Maple Grove, Minnesota, came forward at the state capitol in March to recount the horror that they endured because a disgruntled Arizona State University nursing student murdered Alan's sister, Barb Monroe, a professor at the School of Nursing last October. Barb's killer, Robert Flores, bragged to students that he had a permit to carry a concealed weapon.
- In March of 2003, a Boise State University student and son of Idaho Senate Majority Leader Bart Davis, was shot and killed at a party by 21-year-old Vincent Craig Olsen. Olsen, another student, had been previously convicted of drunk driving and had received a concealed weapon permit in February.
- A June 2002 report from the Violence Policy Center, License to Kill IV: More Guns, More Crime, which used Texas Department of Public Safety data, revealed that Texas concealed handgun license holders have been arrested for more than two crimes per month since the law went into effect. These crimes include murder, manslaughter, kidnapping and rape. See the full report.
- The Brady Campaign has prepared The Incident File, a compilation of incidents obtained through newspaper reports. Permit holders from Naples, Florida to Spokane, Washington have been arrested for a host of violations. Read the Report.
- The Violence Policy Center, in 1996, started recording incidents by Florida permit holders. The report, Concealing the Risk: the Real World Effects of Lax Concealed Weapons Laws demonstrates that many permit holders commit crimes both before and after receiving their permit to carry. Read the report.